Two basic types of shower heads are found in residential indoor bath and shower stalls. One is referred to as a fixed showerhead that is screwed onto the end of a rigid pipe at the top end of a shower riser. The second is usually called a hand held shower or manual shower which is attached to the end of a flexible hose. It usually has an elongated handle for manual grasping. While the hand held shower is popular because of the flexibility and manual grasping and freedom of position of the shower, there are many times when a person wants the hands free operation that is the feature of the fixed shower head. In order to have hands free for operation of the hand held shower, adjustable supports are mounted on the shower wall to mount the hand held shower.
In known adjustable supports, a rod is usually attached to a wall by means of brackets situated at the rod's two opposite ends. The rod usually has its bottom end close to the level of the flow adjustment handles and the rod extends upwardly therefrom. A single mounting bracket is slidably mounted along the rod and has a set screw or set knob that allows the securement of the mounting bracket. The mounting bracket has a clip or pin that mounts the hand held shower. Also known is an adjustable support for a shower where the rod is threaded into the body of a mixing valve assembly for vertical adjustment.
The valve assembly has a securement device for affixing the rod in a desired position. A shower head supplied through a flexible hose emanating from the mixer valve is mounted in a removable manner at the upper end of the rod. In this case, the adjustment of the height of the shower head is accomplished by running the rod in the body of the mixer. All of these adjustable supports for a hand-held shower make it possible to adjust the height at which the hand held shower is installed but only at relatively high levels close to the stature of a person. Naturally, there are cases where one wishes that a shower releases its jet at a lower level, for example, for washing confined to the feet or other lower parts of the body; or during a bath, one wishes to wash and rinse his/her hair. In these cases, the shower must be held manually during the washing operations with subsequent diminished comfort.
What is needed is an improved support for a hand held shower head that provides increased choice and range of position for hands free operation.